28 Secret of the sushi rice
Of all the things I learned from Mr. O,
the most important was about something that never appears on the plate by itself:
sushi rice.
At the academy, we had already learned the basics—
how to mix vinegar, sugar, and salt,
how to cool the rice,
how to reach a good balance.
But sitting at the counter as a regular,
I could ask him the kind of questions you only ask when you feel comfortable:
“Which brand of vinegar do you use?”
“Do you adjust the vinegar for fatty fish?”
“What happens if you add just a little more sugar?”
He answered each question patiently.
The biggest lesson I had from him was everything about AKAZU, the red vinegar.
By using red vinegar, sushi rice becomes slightly darker color, not pure white.
One night, he told me about the vinegar he was using in his restaurant.
He taught me even the brand name of the vinegar.
It was surprising thing to me because, I believed that recipe had to be secret.
Akazu is made by fermenting the pressed rice lees left after brewing sake.
Because it’s born from rice,
it naturally pairs well with rice-based sushi.
In the old days of Tokyo,
akazu was the standard for sushi.
“But,” he continued, “history is never a straight line.”
He told me about the “yellowed rice incident” decades ago.
What is yellowed rice incident?